Broke100Once

A fellow Canadian wins a major, that's definitely worth a thread! Great performance at the Women's PGA, ousting the great Ko in a playoff!

Glover won the Wells Fargo in 2011 but after that he really fell off the map. If it wasn't for his 10-year major exemption, he would've lost his Tour card by now.

I actually think that seven guys getting there since 1960 is more of a sign that at least two of Spieth/Day/McIlroy will crack the five-major barrier. (And if you count five majors exactly, this list is even longer with Phil, Seve and Peter Thomson.) It's only been since 1960 that the idea of the "four majors" has really existed --- before that, it was common for most of the top U.S. players to skip the British or maybe even the PGA given the elongated format. Likewise, top international players sometimes played only the British Open every year. There is no doubt in my mind that if the 'top players play all four majors' mindset had been around since the 30's, obviously Hogan, Snead, Nelson, etc. would have way more major wins. Then again, who knows. Golf is such an unforgiving sport that for all we know, maybe NONE of these guys will ever win another major title. Unlikely, sure, but not impossible. Maybe they'll all win more majors but someone like, say, Martin Kaymer will end up with more than any of them.

I read some article where the writer tried to figure out the identity based on various clues, and discovered that some contradicted each other. So yeah, I tend to agree it's actually multiple people behind it.

Ernie Els, seemingly the most laid-back guy in the world, is the one PGA players would want backing them up in a bar fight? Still waters run deep!

Oakmont has quite possibly the most decorated winners' list of any course. The eight US Opens and three PGAs contested on the course were won by Nicklaus, Hogan, Sarazen, Snead, Els, Cabrera, Armour, Miller, (Larry) Nelson, Mahaffey and Sam Parks. All but the last two guys were multiple major winners and, obviously, some of the biggest legends ever won here. So by that logic, I'm going to go out on a limb and predict that one of the top guys (Day, Spieth or McIlroy) wins the Open.

Wie is such a unique case since by many standards, her career has already been a success. Four LPGA wins, one of them a US Open, and she's still only 26. Wie is still top 60 in the world, it's not like she's fallen off the map entirely.

I get the concept they were going for, but seriously, that ad featured maybe three guys who are actually playing in this year's event.

This one is over. Spieth is going to win again. This has the feeling of those vintage Tiger majors when he'd be leading after the first round and you knew exactly how the weekend was going to play out.

Let's also take a moment for poor Steve Marino, who had yet another close shave but is still looking for his first win

I think we basically saw that at the 2007 Masters

TV is surely hoping for a Kirk vs. Cabrera-Bello final match

"Maxie Patton Kizzire" sounds like a character from the Fifth Element, not a golfer

The way Chappell played that 18th, I was sure saying "geez, it's like he's Dustin Johnson." :)

Lou Graham? Not even close. Won six tournaments, came close in a couple of other majors.

If you want to go old-school, Sam Parks Jr. (1935 US Open champ) may be it. Local amateur who knew Oakmont like the back of his hand, and used that knowledge to shock the world in the 1935 Open. That was his only PGA win, and he only won a few other state pro events in his career. For modern major winners, it's hard to argue with Micheel. As others have noted, even the other 'lightning in a bottle' major champs have won at least one other time on Tour.

Hopefully my fellow Canadian DeLaet can break through for his first win.

This, absolutely. There's certainly drama on the European side (Faldo's year, maybe a bit this year with Clarke jumping ahead of a couple of other guys in the apparent pecking order) but it's nothing like the over-analyzing that takes place with every U.S. loss. When Europe lost in 2008, they seemed to recover quickly and mostly just blame it all on Faldo, then moved on to win the next three Ryder Cups in a row. Talent-wise, both teams are equal. Mentality-wise, Europe has the huge advantage. It seems that ever since the Ryder Cup became so overtly nationalistic (seemed to happen in the Kiawah Beach year), most U.S. players seemingly can't cope with that kind of pressure. It doesn't help that the USA keeps losing, and thus it becomes even more of a mental block and an obstacle to be overcome. If the captaincy is going to be such an issue, then what stands out to me is that Europe picks captains who are only relatively past their playing primes, and are still known and familiar to all of the players. The U.S. team picks guys who may be "due" but are also from at least a generational decade removed from the players he's captaining.

Scott, Watson and Mickelson have to be the favourites based on their early-season form and their history of success at Augusta. Obviously Spieth can't be counted out but I wonder if this 'tired' thing is just a blip that he can overcome with some rest or if all the travel really affected his game. I'm hard-pressed to pick McIlroy or Day given how both have fared this year, though naturally it wouldn't be a surprise if either had a big week. Wild card prediction: Brandt Snedeker wins his first major.

PGA Championship winners also get a lifetime exemption. And I guarantee the USGA would give Tiger an exemption for the US Open in 2019, 2020 and probably several years beyond if he wasn't already eligible.

Can't win at Riviera? Wow, Spieth really is the new Tiger!

Golf is such a weird game for "killer instinct" purposes since your primary opponent is the course, not another golfer. The best way to be so-called ruthless is just to keep playing consistently well, and thus put the pressure on your opponent to match or better what you're doing. The biggest part of Tiger's mystique wasn't his aloof manner, or crowd noise, or what Stevie Williams was doing, it was simply that he so rarely made mistakes that opponents knew they'd have to be virtually perfect to beat him, and 'virtually perfect' is so hard to achieve.

Saturday at Pebble Beach might be the single worst golf broadcast of the year. It's endless fluff interviews with the celebs, endless shots of the course and very little actual golf. Hey, I love looking at Pebble as much as anyone, but I'd also like to see some golf played (and not by some anonymous 15-handicapper CEO).

Ian Woosnam will have to send Bradley a sympathy note. Watch out for Maruyama, that guy is a huge talent. For all the talk of Fowler knocking on the door to make it a Big Four, Maruyama could make it a Big Five. Wouldn't shock me if he won a major this year. lol, "prime talent"

I'd skip it. Since this situation seems to come up once or twice every year, I wonder if the Tour and the overseeing bodies for each major could agree on some kind of "fatherhood exemption." Sort of like how if a player is injured, he can get a status exemption and retain his Tour card for the next year that he's healthy. In the case of a guy like Willett, he's not guaranteed any future slots in the Masters, so it's not really fair that he should have to give up a spot that he's earned and have to make this tough choice. Augusta National could win itself some solid PR points by saying that if Willett skips this year's tournament to be with his wife, there will be a spot waiting for him in the 2017 field.